Director's Note 12/1/16
It is a little odd that we stay open until 5 pm as the days grow shorter. When it is overcast, dusk falls by 4 pm, and by 4:30 it's far too dark to see sculpture clearly. Of course, you can always avoid the late afternoon likelihood of bumping into a tree or wandering into the pond by coming inside to bask in the light and color provided by Pat Hidson and Tori Tasch in their exhibition, or you can gain a different understanding of some of the paintings in our collection, now illuminated by artificial light.
This past week, when walking across the parking lot to help Ney Collier fetch the papermaking supplies that she so kindly donated to Lynden, I noticed that the berms that screen the lot from the lawn have come to resemble two very large small mammals. It seemed natural to reach down and stroke the clumps of prairie drop seed that finally--after several years--cover the land surface, at least when flopped over in their autumnal state. The plants have taken on the winter coloring of animals intent on avoiding predators.
This, too, is the time of year when we ask for your support. We try to keep our pleas to a minimum, but it's important for us to take stock at the end of the year and to share our ideas about what makes Lynden worthy of your continued commitment. We hope that you consider renewing your membership, or purchasing memberships as gifts for friends and family members. Sarah Luther's Lynden notecards, Sara Caron's Lynden T-shirts (in eight sizes!), and the catalogues that illuminate various aspects of the Lynden enterprise make great gifts, too. Proceeds from the sale of T-shirts, notecards, and catalogues support Lynden's education, conservation and publication programs. You can support our gallery programs--and two local artists--by making a present of a Pat Hidson drawing or one of Tori Tasch's sculptural books. Finally, we hope you put Lynden on your gift list this year, and make a tax-deductible donation that will help this laboratory at the intersection of art and nature thrive in 2017.
We wind up the fall session of the weekly art drop-in in the middle of the month, and host the final Tuesdays in the Garden and dog day of 2016. We finish out our holiday giftmaking with a family workshop that invites you to make treats for the birds. A few spots are left in Insurgent Alchemy, a weekend poetry workshop with writer Anne Boyer, part of our ongoing collaboration with Woodland Pattern. And for those who only have an evening to spare, consider joining naturalist Naomi Cobb for a full cold moon walk very close to the shortest day of the year. Lynden will be closed to the public December 24 through January 1, but members are welcome to call ahead to see if we're around should they want to make a visit that week. Who knows, there might be some skating on the pond before the year is out.
